View allAll Photos Tagged astrophytum
Mexico - Higueras, Coahuila.
Capricorne means the goats' horns.
This sp. shows great variability of the spine's lenght, colour, and shape.
The amount of white flecking of the epidermis is also very variable.
This variability have given rise to a large number of named species and varieties.
Needs very open compost with limestone grits.
Frost Toler. Hardy to -6 C.
Min.Avg.Temp. 10 C.
Sun Exposure: Light shade.
In flower amongst her friends in my greenhouse.
This is one of the plants Mother and I grew from seed the year we moved here in 1949.
The name Astrophytum comes from the Greek word for star plant. These beautiful plants are globe shaped and are speckled with white scales and flecks. As it ages, the plant becomes columnar, as mine is.
A. myriostigma (many dotted) is a spineless plant, usually solitary or with very few basal branches. A transverse section of the stem reveal a perfect star shaped form (like the common star-fish) giving the plant the appearance of a bishop's mitre (hence the common name Bishop's cap)
HOWEVER..mine is freaky in that it has only 4 lobes not five, so it not a proper star shape. We did have a 5 lobe one but it is no more.
Ah, well.
Maybe it has had the wrong name for 64 years...someone on Flickr will put me right, I'm sure.
Mexico-Nuevo Leon, 100-200m., in very restricted area.
This newly described species (in 2003) was in the new genus Digitostigma, a monotypic one, but later it was lumped into the genus Astrophytum.
It seems not too difficult to cultivate, but we have not enough experience nowadays. So, it is best to keep it grafted. By the way, it is still very expensive in the cactophiles world.
This was part of the private collection of cacti and succulents at Manor Nursery, Angmering, West Sussex. The collection was started in 1948. The nursery is now gone. The collection has been dispersed to various new locations.
Astrophytum is a genus of six species of cacti in the family Cactaceae, native to North America.
Astrophytum ornatum, the bishop's cap or monk’s hood cactus, is endemic to the Central Plateau of Mexico. It is the largest and tallest species of Astrophytum.